Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (2 page)

But there wasn’t any of them she couldn’t take down one-on-one
.

She had to fight them three and four at a time for them to give her trouble. Ensign Nesra Williams,
Navigation, put her hands on her hips after she walked over.

“Let’s be honest,
N. Everyone here knows you outclass us, and why. You’ve trained with the best–
with Galactic Fight Circuit Champion parents
–since you could float. When we get together like this, we want
you
instructing us from now on. Most of us don’t have half your moves–some of which we’ve never even seen.”

Naero grinned and nodded. “I’d be honored
.”

As soon as they finished their Jett, Naero began drilling them
.

Nesra she taught three new kicks
.

Her
new pilot, Enel Maeris, she helped correct slight flaws in his blocking arcs and techniques that left him open and vulnerable.

Draeden Khyber, E
ngineering, practiced several new grappling holds she showed them all.

Mirra Luna, Gravitics. She and Naero sparred for several minutes
.

Surprisingly, Mirra was almost as fast as her, but not as strong, by far. Naero gave her some further tips on hitting harder and building up her raw strength and power
.

Mirra flashed her a bright smile, a pretty, slender thing with dark wavy hair, big blue eyes, and a face like a porcelain doll
.

Brindil Lakota, Jump D
rives. Naero nearly knocked her out, quite by accident. When Brin came to, they went over several options on how to take hits better and reduce any damage.

Once the two
hours were up, they had to clean up and report for duty that day. Workouts like this brought them all closer together.

Naero’s people thanked her profusely, telling her how much they were looking forward to further lessons
…especially with her.

These were good people. Good crew
.

They worked hard, always striving to be the best
.

If and when they got boarded by enemy sabotage and kill squads, better fighting skills might just save lives. And that was
very important.

Later that
day, they’d be back on the line.

2

At Beleron-4,
Naero and Strike Fleet Six were still in the midst of their near-panicked withdrawal.

Ensign Varcus Adams at his scanning station blinked in confusion
, just like the rest of them.

None of what they just witnessed firsthand made any logical sense
.

“Sir…
all twenty enemy fleets have…they’ve fled the field. Wait…now we’re picking up two new enemy fleets jumping in. One close and about to engage, the other farther out and advancing rapidly to join the fight.”

Two fleets–s
till better than twenty.

“
Varcus, this still doesn’t make any sense,” Naero said.

She consider everything for a short moment
.

“
Were these two fleets part of the other batch?”

Varcus double-checked.
“Negative, sir. Different and apparently–completely unrelated. The closer fleet is the 7
th
Khaido, the other the 3
rd
Khaido. The 7
th
is firing at us from extreme range. The 3
rd
will be on us in 12.4 minutes.”

“
Very well, then. All ships, come about. Let’s deal with the fight at hand. Mysteries later. Sierra-Zulu-7, Wolfspider assault formation. Defensive fighter screens wheel in front and tight. Let’s take down their heavies first. Accelerate to attack speed. Concentrate all batteries on these lead elements, in these optimized targeting profiles.”

Her hands and fingers flashed o
n the battle displays, pweaking their attack vectors and firing profiles as her fleet roared into battle.

The 7th Khaido came at them in Bravo-Victor-4 block formation, with their big guns all blazing out in front
.

A sound strategy. This
Triaxian fleet captain knew his business well.

But
Naero needed to shatter the 7th quickly, and put them down hard and fast, before the 3rd swept in to rip Strike Fleet Six’s heads off.

“All fighter wings—in-and-
out in rearward spin, punishing spirals. Continue to soften up their shields.”

They closed and exchanged initial salvos at long range
.

Only the
ir battleships could hit each other like that.

The
Hippolyta
endured the brunt of the enemy strikes focused on her.

Let them do their worst. The amazon could take it
.

Light damage on her other four bigs, slightly reduced shields
.

“Helm, line up to rake all of their battleships with rapid disruption fire. Keep on them as th
ey try to disperse. Weapons, coordinate firing profiles as we spin and weave. I want their shields down on all five battleships. Concentrate on their weak points and exploit them.”

The
Hippolyta
’
s
big guns punched across two or three warships with every shot, moving to keep them under heavy patterns of fire.

Strike Fleet Six’s
bigs moved and fought with them, adding their precise fire to the mix. Their sixteen, 12 meter batteries blasted the Triaxian battleships in rapid, consecutive order.

The rest of the
strike fleet did their best to defend and go on the offense where they could.

“Scanning…report
.”

“S
ir. Shields down on enemy flagship,
The
Enfield
,
The
Kentucky
,
The
Brown
Bess
,
and
The
Remington
.
The
Springfield
is on fire and withdrawing, falling back
.

They had them
; Naero already knew it.

She called to her bigs, all of which stil
l had shields eighty-percent or better.

Light to moderate damage on a few other ships
.

“
Python
,
Athena
,
Choturri
,
Wombat
–take those bigs down. We’ll soften up the rest. Get ready for their mates sweeping in.”

Naero’s four battleships closed with the enemy bigs and started to bust them up.
Kentucky
soon floated helpless.
Enfield
still fought.
Springfield
continued to evade and burn, apparently unable to jump.
Brown
Bess
got swarmed on. After multiple explosions, she broke up.
Bess
’
s
crew shot away in life pods where they could.
Remington
jumped out with heavy damage.

The enemy bigs that could still move pulled further back into their screen of smaller warships and fighters, in a more defensive mode
.

They
trying to buy time for the 3
rd
Khaido to sweep in and turn the tide. All five enemy carriers jumped out with light to moderate damage.

They had already held back
to the rear. Yet jumping away would strand many of their fighters–if the third couldn’t collect them.

Her strategy remained ferociously efficient.
Naero’s adept hands flew over the battleholo displays like a sorceress casting spells.

She
continued raking the enemy lines with disruption fire, now focusing on the enemy cruisers. Then the enemy destroyers and lesser ships.
The
Hippolyta
swept through the enemy lines or circled about, nailing several of the smaller enemy warships with each blast, continuing to line them up.

The capability to
rapidly degrade or completely eliminate enemy shields proved decisive, time and time again.

Her people knew how to maximize
and pinpoint attack damage. With Naero’s help, they coordinated their fire on the enemy cruisers, ganging up on them three and four at a time.

Once the enemy battleships were
all finally neutralized, Naero’s four bigs added their cannons to the rapidly progressing gun battle as well.

Ten enemy cruisers
: two destroyed, six burning and listing, two fled–in minutes.

Naero’s fleet
continued to chew through the remaining destroyers and lesser warships, just as the second enemy fleet swept in to attack.

In the resulting chaos, Naero first withdrew in several directions to cause confusion
.

Some of the enemy held back, some attempted to pursue
.

Naero pulled them in several directions, off balance and out of formation
.

Her finger
s jabbed at and punctuated the battle screens.

“
Alpha-Charlie-2 Cloud attack! Collapse back in on them. Take the bigs down first, then the others. Hit them ship-to-ship in-close with all batteries. We’ll continue to disrupt shields on their lines, and wear them down.”

This became tougher, because the new enemy fleet was fresh and undamaged
, providing the foe with a temporary advantage.

Naero quickly scanned her own roster of ships
, checking the battle status of each one.

“
Wombat
, withdraw and jump if pursued. You’re too beat up.”

Wombat
Captain Blue Ryan protested. “We can still fight, sir! Let’s finish this.”

“Negative, Blue. Your shields are
at eight percent and two of your engines are on fire. Jump out while you still can. That’s an order. Acknowledge.”

“Yes, sir. On our way
.”

“These ships, I’m ordering you out of the mix as well. Jump back to the
Alliance and report to the fixer clouds. We’ll re-join you, as able.
Panther
,
Vulturo
,
White
Cat
,
Thunderbolt
,
Gray
Typhoon
,
Duelist
,
Toparra
,
Lightning
Bug
,
Star
Witch
,
Hammerhead
,
Marauder
,
and
The
Seraph
.
I say again, withdraw at once. Stay together. “

All dozen of them pulled
out, withdrew further, and jumped–some of them quite heavily damaged.

Two of them had to be towed
into jump by others.

Her ranks reduced
significantly, Naero continued the fight.

Within seconds of the initial engagement, the five fresh enemy battleships gave her forces a
very hard time of it.

Concentrated enemy fire quickly degraded her remaining bigs and the cruisers that form
ed up to support them.

The
Hippolyta
spun on her axis and charged in.

She quickly directed all four of her massive
main batteries against each of the Triaxian battleships in turn.

The
Hurricane
, shields down, moderate damage.

The
Tornado
, shields down, re-positioning, still fighting.

Ensign Yon
Cherokee called out from his Shielding station on the bridge’s third ring. “
Hippolyta
shields down to forty-three percent, sir.”

All five enemy battleships suddenly pushed in close, concentrating all their fire
from their primary and secondary batteries straight at
The
Hippolyta
, pummeling her,
beating her up.

Other
lesser enemy ships joined in, trying hard to take her down.

Naero sneered and
kept firing, right into their packed ranks.

“Bring your worst, scum! My girl can take it. Better than you have tried to take us down, and gone up in flames. All ships, cut them to pieces
while they’re focused on us!”

“Shields at twenty-six percent…fourteen…
”

Hippolyta
’
s
next four gun salvo blasted the enemy flagship,
The
Hurricane
completely to dust, damaging all ships close to it—whether friend or foe.

“Shields gone, sir. Hull armor on bridge
blast screens rapidly failing.”

Combined main b
attery fire from three enemy battleships:
The
Tornado
,
The
Dark
Typhoon
,
and
The
Maelstrom
struck
The Hippolyta
bridge blast screens and finally punched through.

Enemy firepower enveloped the bridge and each of its shielded stations in a firestorm
.

Naero felt her shields
fizzle and fail. A powerful force smacked her down. Burning pain erupted across her upper left arm.